80s

Perfect for the last of these grey wintery days, Catherine B. of Concord, New Hampshire brings us "The Long Walk: A Brooding 80s Mix." The Cure, Joy Division, Echo And The Bunnymen, Depeche Mode – this one is picturesque indeed. Tune in here.

As we celebrate Andy Gibb’s birthday today, it’s difficult to look back on the life of the youngest of the brothers Gibb without wishing that it had lasted longer, but at least he left behind a trio of albums – not to mention a few additional singles, B-sides, and demos – which conclusively confirm that he could croon just as well as Barry, Maurice, and Robin when given the opportunity.

Born in 1958 in Manchester, England, Andrew Roy Gibb was only six months old when his family made the big move to Australia, where he lived until returning to the UK in 1967 in the wake of his brothers breaking it big in the music business. As the Bee Gees’ stock continued to rise, Andy unsurprisingly began the process of following in their footsteps, forming his own band – Melody Fayre, a name which will be familiar to anyone who owns the Odessa album – and, although it ultimately went unreleased, recording his first song, Maurice’s “My Father Was a Reb,” in 1974.

Later that year, Andy took heed of Barry’s advice to return to Australia, which had done wonders for the Bee Gees in the embryonic stage of their career. Teaming with Australian rock legend Col Joye, Andy released his first single, the self-composed “Words and Music,” in November 1975, which was a minor hit in Australia (#78) and slightly bigger in New Zealand (#29). Although he actually recorded an album’s worth of material, only the one single – which was backed with another original entitled “Westfield Mansions” – ever saw release, but the material was enough to sell the Bee Gees’ manager, Robert Stigwood, on signing Andy to his label, RSO Records.

Here’s hoping the members of Spandau Ballet are planning to spend a significant amount of this week catching up on their beauty sleep, because they’re really going to need to be rested, ready, and at the top of their game when next week rolls around:

• On March 12, all five members of the band – if you haven’t had to remember their names for awhile, that’s Tony Hadley, Gary Kemp, Steve Norman, John Keeble, and Martin Kemp – will be at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, attending the world premiere of their documentary, Soul Boys of the Western World, which is in competition in the 24 Beats per Second category.

• Just after it becomes March 13 – at 12:30 AM, to be precise – the band will perform at the Vulcan Gas Company, which will be a decidedly momentous occasion, as it’ll be their first U.S. performance in 28 years.

• At 3:30 PM on the 13th, the fivesome will sit down for an interview at the SXSW Music Conference.

• Finally, on March 14 they’ll be back onstage again, this time as participants in the Official SXSW Tribute to Lou Reed.

Yep, it’s gonna be a pretty exhausting few days for Spandau Ballet…but you’d be hard pressed to find Gary Kemp complaining about a single bit of it.

A few days ago, we hopped on the phone with Mr. Kemp in order to discuss the band’s seminal album, 1983’s True – the reissue of which hits stores today, precisely 31 years after its initial release – and while we had him on the line, we also chatted a bit about their belated return to the States in conjunction with Soul Boys of the Western World. During the course of the conversation, we got a fair amount of insight into how Spandau Ballet’s sound evolved over the course of their career, dug a bit deeper into the importance of True to their U.S. profile, and found out why it may or may not be a coincidence that the new promo photos for Doctor Who find the Twelfth Doctor wearing a jacket which looks like it could’ve been swiped from Mr. Hadley’s wardrobe.

Put on your sailin’ shoes and prep your stereo system accordingly, Rhino’s served up a big helping of Little Feat. In conjunction with the band’s new 13-CD boxed set, Rad Gumbo: The Complete Warner Bros. Years – 1971-1990, founding Feat member Bill Payne was kind enough to hop on the phone for a nice long chat and spend some time reflecting on the band’s lengthy career on the label.

Rhino: How did you and Lowell George first cross paths?

Bill Payne: I was up in Santa Barbara…well, to be specific, I was just north of there, in Isla Vista, where the University of California, Santa Barbara was. I had a phony credit card that someone had given me. There were two labels that I could call: one was Bizarre, and the other was Straight Records. They were both Zappa labels. Naturally, I called Bizarre – though I’m sure the same person would’ve picked up the phone for both – and, you know, here I was on the street, basically, saying, “Uh, I play keyboards…” [Laughs.]

It took several calls to sort of get this person, this lady on the other end of the line, to take me seriously enough – or maybe she felt sorry for me – to put me in touch with Jeffrey Simmons, who was with a group called Eureka, which was one of the bands in Frank Zappa’s stable. I finally did meet Jeff at the Tropicana Hotel on Santa Monica Boulevard, and Jeff said, “Oh, well, I play keyboards, too, and this might kind of destroy what I’m doing, but there’s this guy Lowell George that I really think you ought to try and reach.” So Jeffrey put me on to Lowell.

Rhino Presents Rad Gumbo: The Complete Warner Bros. Years 1971-1990, Featuring Studio Albums, Live Recordings, And Outtakes By The Legendary Group

13-CD Boxed Set Now Available

Little Feat blended a wide range of musical styles to create a sound that’s as indescribable as it is unforgettable. During the band’s celebrated tenure with Warner Bros. Records it recorded nine studio albums between 1971 and 1990 that included such classic tracks as “Dixie Chicken,” “Rocket in My Pocket,” “Fat Man In the Bathtub” and “Willin’.”

Rhino drives from Tucson to Tucumcari to bring fans a boxed set that includes all of those studio albums, plus a generous helping of live recordings and studio outtakes. Presented in a clamshell box, RAD GUMBO: THE COMPLETE WARNER BROS. YEARS 1971-1990 will be available on February 25.

If the soundtrack of your life has ever featured a slow dance to the strains of “True,” then you’ll possibly be as excited as we are about the following three pieces of information:

1. There’s a new film called Soul Boys of the Western World which documents the life and times of Spandau Ballet.
2. The film will have its world premiere in March when it’s screened in competition in the 24 Beats category of the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
3. All five members of the band – Tony Hadley, Gary Kemp, Martin Kemp, John Keeble, and Steve Norman – will be in attendance for the film’s premiere, marking the first time the fivesome have appeared together in North America since 1985.

In the official press release for Soul Boys of the Western World, the documentary is described as “a journey through the 1980s and beyond; the story of a band, an era and how one small gathering of outsiders in London shaped the entire world’s view of music and fashion.”

If you’ve ever enjoyed the opportunity to shake your groove thing to the strains of the B-52’s “Dance This Mess Around,” then the least you can do today is wish a happy birthday to the woman who sang lead on the track, Ms. Cindy Wilson.

Born in Athens, Georgia in 1957, Cynthia Leigh Wilson was one of the founding members of the B-52’s, along with her brother, the late Ricky Wilson, and Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider, and Keith Strickland. The band became an underground smash with their first single, “Rock Lobster,” a song which – per Pierson – Ricky Wilson introduced to his bandmates by grinning and saying, “I’ve just written the stupidest guitar line you’ve ever heard.” Stupid, perhaps, but it was so memorable that the song continues to endure to this day, along with such other early singles as “Planet Claire,” “Private Idaho,” “Give Me Back My Man,” “Mesopotamia,” “Song for a Future Generation,” and “Summer of Love.”

For as wonderful an earworm as the imminently danceable 2013 single “Get Lucky” may have been, arguably the best thing about the song was the fact that it helped introduce a new generation of music fans to the genius of Nile Rodgers. Kids, you remember the gentleman in the white suit and purple hat who was standing next to Pharrell and shredding his way through Daft Punk’s Grammy performance? That guy is a legend, and it’s about time you learned more about him than the fact that he can tear it up on guitar...although that’s certainly not a bad place to start.

Born in New York City on September 19, 1952, Nile Gregory Rodgers got his start the same place a lot of us did: from Sesame Street. In Rodgers’ case, though, it was as a guitarist for the show’s touring band, led by noted songwriter Joe Raposo, the man behind “Bein’ Green” and “C Is for Cookie,” among other classics. From there, Rodgers played in the house band of the Apollo Theater, a stint which provided him with the opportunity to back up more than a few R&B legends, but it was his friendship with bassist Bernard Edwards, who he met in 1970, that put both gentlemen on the road to musical success and superstardom.

Take a trip with us back through the mists of time, back to an era when the names “Scott Baio” and “Willie Aames” could still get a film green-lit...well, you know, at least as long as it was a teenage sex romp about a high-school science whiz whose misbegotten lab experiment results in him obtaining telekinetic abilities.

If you lived through the ‘80s and had cable, it was virtually impossible to avoid seeing Zapped! at least once (but more likely half a dozen times), but unlike so many other teen comedies released during the decade, the soundtrack didn’t result in a great deal of chart action, and it quickly slipped into obscurity...until now.

Well, actually, we’re just trying to be dramatic. It’s still pretty darned obscure. But now that it’s been added to Rhino’s digital catalog, surely it’s at least worth a casual reappraisal.

Despite the fact that he long ago made the decision to perform under a decidedly anonymous moniker, John Doe – who turns 60 today – has made some remarkably memorable music over the course of his long career, starting with his work alongside Exene Cervenka in the seminal Los Angeles punk band X.

Born John Nommensen Duchac in Decatur, Illinois in 1954, the future Mr. Doe eventually moved to California, where he and his bass teamed up with guitarist Billy Zoom in 1977 to form X. Although Cervenka started out as Doe’s poetry-writing girlfriend rather than his bandmate, she soon joined the lineup of X, along with drummer DJ Bonebrake, creating a membership which would remain the same all the way through the band’s fifth album, 1985’s Ain’t Love Grand! X carried on, however, and has continued to do so ever since.